Cape Town — A rapist and murderer who escaped after faking his death in a South African prison cell, then spent more than 10 months at liberty, has been arrested in Tanzania, two South African cabinet ministers reported on Saturday.
In a news conference broadcast live from Pretoria, the ministers said the escapee, Thabo Bester, was arrested by Tanzanian authorities late on Friday night as he headed from Arusha to the Kenyan border. Also arrested with him were Dr Nandipha Maguduma, an alleged accomplice in his escape in May 2022, and a third person, an unnamed Mozambican national.
South Africa’s Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, and the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola, said they are sending a team to Tanzania on Sunday to secure the return of those arrested to South Africa. Their cooperation with the Tanzanian government has been “exemplary” so far, they added.
Lamola told the news conference that since Bester is an escaped criminal, he needed simply to be deported back to South Africa. Bester gained notoriety in South Africa as “the Facebook rapist” because he lured women on social media, then raped them. He was serving a life sentence for rape and murder.
Lamola also indicated that extradition proceedings might also be on the cards. Dr Maguduma was apparently seen with Bester in a restaurant in March this year, and would likely face trial herself.
Cele told the news conference that those arrested were in possession of multiple passports, but there were no stamps reflecting their arrival in Tanzania.
At the time of Bester’s escape, it was reported that he had died in a fire in his prison cell. The ministers announced on Saturday that DNA analysis of the body found in the cell was not that of Bester.
” The autopsy report went on to further reveal that the deceased had died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head, and was already dead, prior to the arson incident,” the ministers said .
